Your last generator Maintenance Run

[daugen]

I'm thinking heating the oil is way more important than heating the battery if my temps don't normally go below 10 degrees, ever.
Do I need both heaters?

 

[3930dave]

Assuming you mean 10F d, this Sandia paper has SLA batteries down to 65% capacity.

http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/2004/043149.pdf

I suspect that Flooded Lead Acid is similar.

If you're only going to pick one, I'd go with oil. But, esp. if it's just plug and play, both temp controlled, then I'd buy the battery warmer too - Belt and Suspenders .

Rgds, D.

 

[daugen]

Assuming you mean 10F d, this Sandia paper has SLA batteries down to 65% capacity.

http://prod.sandia.gov/techlib/access-control.cgi/2004/043149.pdf

I suspect that Flooded Lead Acid is similar.

If you're only going to pick one, I'd go with oil. But, esp. if it's just plug and play, both temp controlled, then I'd buy the battery warmer too - Belt and Suspenders .

Rgds, D.

yup, and I'm an old insurance guy and been doing belt and suspenders for a long time
thanks

 

[grsthegreat]

i cant say whether the battery warmer would be needed or not. i use both. i do know that a battery weakens as it gets colder. ive had a few no starts on my truck in severly cold whether. mind you here in north idaho it does get real cold at times. if your winters arnt too severe, than you probably dont need it.

 

[David_Kb7uns]

Ran a load test Monday morning from 1am until 4am with utility loss.

Warned the new neighbors they should consider generator last summer while the houses were being built and now a few are showing interest.

We got a 5875 20KW Generac air cooled generator in 2010 and it had the Nexus controller with integrated battery charger it was earlier ones with a standalone charger in the transfer switch that over charged, best to just replace with a battery tender, note the battery charger must have power when utility is off and generator is running as the newer generators do not have a battery charge winding.

David

 

[3930dave]

Ran a load test Monday morning from 1am until 4am with utility loss.

Warned the new neighbors they should consider generator last summer while the houses were being built and now a few are showing interest.

We got a 5875 20KW Generac air cooled generator in 2010 and it had the Nexus controller with integrated battery charger it was earlier ones with a standalone charger in the transfer switch that over charged, best to just replace with a battery tender, note the battery charger must have power when utility is off and generator is running as the newer generators do not have a battery charge winding.

David

An engineer buddy of mine put an older auto-generac system in when he built his retirement home "up north" . (Canadian joke....)

Did the research, and he noticed that the cold-start (circa -40) requirement for the nat-gas pressure was notably higher (told me the #s, but it was a while ago....) than what the normal household regulator supplies. (Normal Natgas pressure in households is very low). So, he bought a separate to-spec higher pressure regulator to feed only the generator and had that installed at his cost when his house was built.

And.... also bought a second higher pressure regulator, and stored that as a spare. It's not something that the gas company always has on the shelf. Like I said..... engineer :thumbsup:.

He met a lot of neighbours quickly that first summer in the new house (big August NE blackout), as his fairly empty new freezer quickly filled up with product those neighbours would have had to eat immediately, or lose.

Rgds, D.

 

[cqaigy2]

An engineer buddy of mine put an older auto-generac system in when he built his retirement home "up north" . (Canadian joke....)

Did the research, and he noticed that the cold-start (circa -40) requirement for the nat-gas pressure was notably higher (told me the #s, but it was a while ago....) than what the normal household regulator supplies. (Normal Natgas pressure in households is very low). So, he bought a separate to-spec higher pressure regulator to feed only the generator and had that installed at his cost when his house was built.

And.... also bought a second higher pressure regulator, and stored that as a spare. It's not something that the gas company always has on the shelf. Like I said..... engineer :thumbsup:.

He met a lot of neighbours quickly that first summer in the new house (big August NE blackout), as his fairly empty new freezer quickly filled up with product those neighbours would have had to eat immediately, or lose.

Rgds, D.

Yeah, free food. :laughing:

 

[David_Kb7uns]

An engineer buddy of mine put an older auto-generac system in when he built his retirement home "up north" . (Canadian joke....)

Did the research, and he noticed that the cold-start (circa -40) requirement for the nat-gas pressure was notably higher (told me the #s, but it was a while ago....) than what the normal household regulator supplies. (Normal Natgas pressure in households is very low). So, he bought a separate to-spec higher pressure regulator to feed only the generator and had that installed at his cost when his house was built.

And.... also bought a second higher pressure regulator, and stored that as a spare. It's not something that the gas company always has on the shelf. Like I said..... engineer :thumbsup:.

He met a lot of neighbours quickly that first summer in the new house (big August NE blackout), as his fairly empty new freezer quickly filled up with product those neighbours would have had to eat immediately, or lose.

Rgds, D.

Did a lot of research on the propane requirements, running a twin regulator set up with the proper sized piping, every propane dealer I have seen set up the generators around here are not putting enough volume capability, tell them to size for 160,000 BTU with no pressure drop. Went with a 500 gallon tank to have enough area for boil off in the colder temps and even have my own manometer to check pressure (that surprises the propane guys) low gas pressure is one of the biggest causes of problems with the generators.

Have had neighbors threaten to come up when the power goes out and I tell them to get their own generator, we put one in as we need to be able to prepare our own food in emergencies as non of emergency supplies or organizations are suitable or prepared for people with Celiac Disease.

At first it was embarrassing to be the only Christmas Lights on the hill lit up, but now we have 2 others with standby generators and a couple neighbors got more interested in a whole house standby generator after last weekend and one got a Honda Portable that is half the price of a 20KW Generac.

David

 

[zmountaineer]

Did a lot of research on the propane requirements, running a twin regulator set up with the proper sized piping, every propane dealer I have seen set up the generators around here are not putting enough volume capability, tell them to size for 160,000 BTU with no pressure drop. Went with a 500 gallon tank to have enough area for boil off in the colder temps and even have my own manometer to check pressure (that surprises the propane guys) low gas pressure is one of the biggest causes of problems with the generators.

Have had neighbors threaten to come up when the power goes out and I tell them to get their own generator, we put one in as we need to be able to prepare our own food in emergencies as non of emergency supplies or organizations are suitable or prepared for people with Celiac Disease.

At first it was embarrassing to be the only Christmas Lights on the hill lit up, but now we have 2 others with standby generators and a couple neighbors got more interested in a whole house standby generator after last weekend and one got a Honda Portable that is half the price of a 20KW Generac.

David

Based on generacs chart for supply line size I was near the end of the 1" range. I looked at the cost difference for 1 1/4". I went with 1 1/4".

 

[90cummins]

Ran a couple of fuel consumption tests on my Honda EU2000i and I'm quite pleased/surprised at the hours per gallon that I can power the 1/4 hp high efficiency blower motor for my wood furnace along with the living room lights & tv.
The load per my killawatt meter varied between 490 & 594va.
The test ran 202 minutes (3.37 hours) and consumed 31.6 ounces / 894 grams of fuel by weight.
Gasoline per Google weighs approx 6.25 lb/gallon (100 ounces) which it consumed at the rate of 9.39 ounces / 265.54 grams per hour.
To measure the fuel consumed I placed the auxilary 3 gallon fuel tank that was connected to the Honda on my digital postal scale for continious monitoring recording the start and finish weight.
The killawatt meter showed that 1.5 kw of power was used.
According to my calculations with the load mentioned above it will operate for 10.68 hours and produce 4.76kw per gallon of gasoline.
Listed below is the basic data I obtained my figures from.
Hours run = 3.37 (202 minutes)
Grams fuel consumed = 894
Ounces fuel consumed = 31.6
Hours/gallon = 10.68
Gallons/hour = 0.09
Kw consumed = 1.5
Kw/gallon of gasoline = 4.76
Please feel free to check/verify my results for errors, I strive for accurate data and welcome feedback.
Thanks
90cummins